The Hauntingly Beautiful Beach House

The music of the Baltimore-based Beach House has a duality to it. This was apparent at their October 2 show at Crocks, where the band kept the audience in a melancholic awe with Victoria Legrand’s smoky vocals and keyboard, and simultaneously rocked out by Alex Scally’s ripping guitar melodies. Their stop in Thunder Bay was part of their first-ever headlining tour of Canada, aptly dubbed Northern Exposure.

The dream-pop duo’s playlist started out with songs from their latest album Bloom (2012), with hypnotic versions of “Lazuli” and “Other People.” But the show’s energy peaked when the band performed songs from their critically acclaimed album Teen Dream (2010). This included beautiful renditions of “Silver Soul” and “Norway,” as well as an electrifying version of “Zebra.”

Beach House was joined on stage by their touring musicians—Daniel Franz on drums, Skyler Skjelset on bass, and Steve Strohmeier on guitar/keyboard (Skjelset as well as Strohmeier also opened for the band as solo acts). The presence of these other musicians provided the multiple layers that defines the signature dream-pop-rock sound of Beach House.

It was refreshing to see a band on tour where their purpose wasn’t promoting their latest release, rather the band’s set featured music from all four of their albums.
For anyone unfamiliar with Beach House, check out their albums starting with the stellar Teen Dream.